


Meeting Castle

by Mierke



Category: Castle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 12:35:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3447410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/pseuds/Mierke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexis is at a book signing, and she's lonely. Pre-series AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting Castle

**Author's Note:**

> Written for February Bingo - "Meet & Greet: Image prompt (two people looking out into a mall)"

Alexis left the bookstore, needing to get away from her father's adoring fans for a while. She loved him, she really did, but every once in a while this endless stream of women falling all over themselves for him got on her nerves. She took a deep breath as she looked down the mall. She knew this feeling; it was always the same at the end of a book tour, the feeling that she wanted her father to herself for a while, the feeling of abandonment that came with him never being home and always catering to people who weren't her.

She bit her lip to keep the tears from falling out. She was 13 now, too old to give in to these kinds of breakdowns. 

"Hey, are you okay?"

Alexis glanced up to see a tall brunette and she nodded, not trusting herself enough yet to be able to form words without the tears choking her. The woman came to stand next to her, looking alternatively into the mall and into the bookstore where Alexis' father was hauled up.

"Are you here to see Richard Castle?"

Alexis couldn't quite stifle the giggle that escaped her at the woman's question. It still surprised her how her father had kept her out of the press; she still expected that fans would know her somehow, would recognize her, as if she'd exude a _Castleness_ that people couldn't miss. In lieu of an actual answer she nodded again, soothing her conscience by telling herself she wasn't actually lying. She was here to see her father, after all.

"Are you?" she asked, curiously. She couldn't quite see this woman asking her father to sign her chest, but sometimes you just couldn't tell.

"I am," the woman replied. "There's just something about his books, you know?"

A sad smile played across the woman's lips.

"My mom used to love them. Reading these books, I just feel... closer to her somehow. What about yours? Is she inside?"

"Mine used to love him too," Alexis replied, holding back the smile that threatened to break out when she realized the change in pronoun went straight over the woman's head. 

Silence descended for a while, as they watched giggling girls and women come out of the bookstore.

"Don't you want to go in?" Alexis asked, genuinely curious as to why this woman was standing out here instead of meeting her idol. 

"I do," she replied. "You just looked like you could use someone."

"I'm better now," Alexis smiled, surprised to find out that it was the actual truth. Hearing someone say that her dad's books had brought her some kind of comfort had changed something in her perspective of the fans. Somewhere along the way she'd lost sight of the fact that some fans actually liked the books, not just the attention her father could give them at these signings, not just her father, but his mind.

The woman stuck out her hand, and Alexis took it.

"Kate Beckett," she said. 

"Alexis Castle," Alexis answered, unable to keep the smile off her face as she introduced herself. Kate's eyes widened for a moment, then she fled.

"Thank you," Alexis whispered into the nothingness, and followed the woman into the building.


End file.
